{to be}|. breaking . broken.|{in}{outof} control

Before Miu could fully process I’ah’s words, it ignited with red flames that exploded out towards her. A scream tore from Miu’s mouth as she fell to her knees.

“Unspool the scarlet hunger, rip open the furnaces of the world. Devour and tear the world asunder!” I’ah commanded as the flames roared across the void.

The fire struck Miu, and absolute agony seized her mind and body like before. Once more, she did not burn, but she felt the suffering of the blaze. Screams mutated into animalistic cries as Miu’s mind began to break once more from the trauma.

I’ah recalled the flames as Miu continued to cry out in terror.

“You wanted to train without stillness. This is your reward. Retalliate if you can.”

Hysteria shook Miu’s body as she locked her fingers into the reflective floor.

“Wait. Wait! Wait!” she cried as uncertainty seized her muscles.

“Waiting is stillness. And you reject that!” I’ah roared as the air turned frigid around them.

“White silence, shattering bones. Spill frost across their veins. Let the world fall quiet until nothing remains!”

Daggers of freezing breath cut into Miu’s lungs as she tried to breathe, but the air was so beyond freezing that each gasp turned the moisture in her throat to ice. Choaks of horror and pain lurched her forward. Blood and salt ran down her face as tears fell from both eyes.

Fire.

“Retaliate, human. You said you wanted to train, yet you act as though our ways are not enough for you! You are no different than your leaders: you seek the power of our ancient language yet the only language you speak is violence. So I shall speak to you in your tongue!”

Crackles of otherworldly thunder rolled above them.

“Tears of heat scream from the sky. Illuminate with sudden red. Shatter this form until it is consumed in dread!!”

Red bursts of lightning exploded from the unseen heavens and struck Miu’s arched spine. Bolts of suffering tore across every ligament and bone, sending suffering and heat into Miu’s teeth and eyes.

fire

Now her left eye was excruciatingly alive. Miu could feel it burning in response, but the horror of everything kept her from moving. Blue flames flickered from within her eye socket, but she could not move.

More and more bursts of lightning struck her body, turning the ground around her to smoldering ash and sending her muscles into frenetic spasms.

Canyoufeelthefiregrowing

She had to speak. Youillneverknowstillnessorpeace. She had to do something. Youwillonlyknowpieces. The incantations. Just like the Arcan products. Yukiwasinpiecesnow. Those wretched products from that wretched world. Thatworlddeservedtoburn.

I’ah rose in full splendor and wrath.

“Fight or welcome the death you so crave,” it roared as the entirety of the void erupted in electric crimson flames.

Red.

The hill was red that day, all those years ago. Pink flowers bathed in somber dusk. He was so beautiful in that light.

“Stone that slumbers in fractured gleam. Wake from the pressure of your deathless dream. Rise into prisms of glittering light; answer my call with a crystalline might!”

“Yuki, help… please help…” Miu whimpered as she braced for death.

The ground beneath her began to glow, and within a single breath, the new shards appeared. Glowing red geodes erupted from the floor and hurled into Miu’s body, striking her with the force of a raging bull. The impact cracked her ribs and threw her screaming body meters away. Just like him. Just like that night. Just like the thing that paralyzed him. The thing that stopped them from running.

burn

Those shards were as much to blame for their suffering as any military. That realization settled into Miu’s synapses as her weakened frame flailed through the air. Just before she struck the ground, her memories replayed the image of Yuki striking the asphalt and snapping his spine.\

Burn

She struck the ground and rolled as blood smeared across the reflective ground. Her spine wasn’t severed like her friend’s was all those years ago, but her elbow was dislocated and her ribs were fractured.

BURN

Glimmers of light beneath her warned Miu that another attack was coming.

BURN EVERYTHING TO ASH AND CINDER. BURNEVERYTHINGTOASHANDCINDER.

Pain was everywhere. That was all she knew. This place was bringing her back to the exact same agony she had felt weeks ago when everything collapsed. Suffering bound itself to every fiber of her soul’s tapestry as it rewrote her understanding of cruelty. Once more, an ethereal blue glow began to radiate from her eye as she gasped in desperation. Red flames licked their way closer to her body.

But something shifted in Miu’s mind. Weeks ago, it was despair that sent her into her collapse. Now, a new sensation consumed her mind as she looked at the threatening death that was approaching. Now, all she felt was malice.

canyoufeelthefiregrowing

It wasn’t simply the humans who were to blame. It was the shards who paralyzed Yuki. It was the Arcans for not wiping the armies away.

It was everyone.

canyoufeelthefiregrowing?

It was everything.

Canyoufeelthefiregrowing?

Fire in the skies.

Burn everything to ash and cinder.

You were the light in my eyes.

Can you feel the fire growing?

You aren’t coming back.

She was tired of being burned. The fire was finally going to be hers.

The roar erupted without Miu’s intention, as Miu forced herself onto her hands and knees. Radiant sapphire blue flames cascaded out from her skin, sending heated fury in every direction. Pain remained, but the burns were no longer insufferable. Now, she could tolerate its scorch. Now, she could focus.

Her eye flickered, then erupted into pure white as the flames around her did as well. The heat was so great that it seemed to begin to tear the walls of reality away from The Aether. I’ah’s fiery red retreated in shock as its tendrils and crystalline body chunks receded into their smaller form.

Miu’s scowl became a snarl as she faced her attacker. Reason bled away and hate took complete control. The storm consumed her.

“I told you I would kill all of you if you ever touched me again,” she lamented as her fingers twitched at her side.

Glitches appeared around them as The Aether began to melt away. Nothing but pitch black darkness was visible behind the tearing veils of unreality.

“Miu enough! Stop this! You are losing control!!” I’ah commanded.

Miu’s fiery gaze settled on I’ah as her head tilted in a near taunt.

“I have never had control. My entire life has been defined by a lack of control. No control over being abandoned. No control over being abused. No control in being separated from Yuki! No control over your arrivals! No control from the world being broken!! NO CONTROL FROM LOSING HIM!!! Now, I will finally be in control of losing control, AND YOU WILL ALL SUFFER FOR IT!!!” Miu roared.

Her eyes were dead. It was as though her body was simply a husk that was a vessel for unrestrained hate, which had now taken over her mind.

“Fire in the skies! No more light within my eyes! Watch as your world dies!!!”

She let out another scream, and the flames rushed towards I’ah. But they didn’t touch it. Before Miu’s breath had fully left her lungs, I’ah glitched and appeared directly before her. A single tendril reached out and touched Miu’s eye shard.

Everything fell away.

Within an instant, they were both back in the Arcan fortress, still in the corner. Gone were the flames of fury and The Aether’s ethereal void. Now, all that remained was Miu’s gasps of shock as clarity returned. After a few chokes of confusion and realization, she dared to look up at I’ah.

Even though it was faceless, Miu felt its gaze of condemnation and disgust. It wasn’t just from I’ah. The other Arcans around them were all watching her with a seemingly terrified indignancy.

“I… I’m sorry. I’m so sorry…” Miu whispered as tears of shame rose in her eyes.

I’ah rose in silence before pausing.

“I have spent the time since our arrival reflecting on your kind. Your emotion and lack of stillness as a species made you enigmatic to me. But you… You are something far beyond anything I can comprehend. I sense nothing but cruelty in you. Your soul is a feather in a storm. I have little faith that I can teach you stillness or peace…”

Thus it left her without any more conversation. The others followed I’ah out of the great room, leaving Miu alone with nothing but the echoes of her sobs.

Hours passed. No one came to check on her. But no one came to kill her or banish her either. Nightfall arrived and Miu had no tears left to cry. By then, the entire left side of her face was stained with red smears from hours of wiping away the bloody tears from the shard. To her surprise, Miu felt lonely.

She wanted comfort. It was a childlike feeling that she had buried for years. For so long, it had haunted her in the dark nights within the orphanage walls when she couldn’t be with Yuki. It crawled into her bed like a ghost, wrapping its cold fingers around her throat and whispering that she would be forever alone. She didn’t want to believe it back then, because Yuki was always just a few doors away.

But now he wasn’t, and she feared that ghost would return to haunt her once more if she did not steady her mind.

So she forced herself to crawl in the direction I’ah had drifted.

It took some time, but eventually she found I’ah and several other Arcans communing around a pulsing purple geode that was larger than a house.

None of them acknowledged her when she entered, but none turned her away either.

Miu dared to approach. Humiliation and loneliness humbled her into full submission, and she crawled to the open space beside I’ah.

Seconds passed, and I’ah didn’t send her from their gathering, so Miu exhaled in relief as twitches seized her stomach and threatened to undo her once more. Biting the back of her bottom lip helped, and Miu was able to keep her tears away for once. She sank onto her legs and closed her eyes in broken reflection.

“I don’t think I’ll ever feel peace,” she cried as the coldness of the floor drifted along her bare shins.

“No, you seemingly will not. And you must make peace with that,” I’ah replied.

The tears almost broke through their dam, but Miu clinched her eyes shut. I’ah finally turned towards her.

“However, even without peace, there is stillness. Are you ready to try our ways now?” it asked.

Miu, broken, afraid, and alone, exhaled a quiet plea and nodded yes.

I'ah said nothing else and simply returned to its stationary pose. Miu inhaled and settled in to join them.